Album review: 'Motion to Rejoin,' by Brightblack Morning Light

Patrick Varine

Tuesday

Sep 30, 2008 at 12:01 AMSep 30, 2008 at 3:12 PM

"Motion to Rejoin" is largely cut from the same cloth as Brightblack Morning Light's self-titled major-label debut: woozy blues dirges with just a hint of gospel and electronic elements. The new record could maybe use a little more propulsion and percussion, but they once again succeed at creating an excellent soundtrack for sinking deep into the couch.

Brightblack Morning Light inhabit a strange little place in the jam-band universe. If you took the blues-jazz sound of Morcheeba, gave it a heavy dose of Demerol and then crossed that with the part of a Grateful Dead show where they’re drifting out of the second-set drum solo and into another song …

That’s probably a little too involved. Let’s just call them a psychedelic blues band on downers that forgot to pick up their drummer.

The New Mexico-based band is largely one man, Naybob Shineywater (not a joke) and fellow vocalist Rachael Hughes, and things don’t get any less hippie-licious from there: not only was "Motion to Rejoin" recorded using strictly solar power, but it sports song titles like “Hologram Buffalo,” “A Rainbow Aims” and “When Beads Spell Power Leaf.”

On the surface, it’s got all the hallmarks of a pretentious jammy bore. Then again, that’s what I thought about their self-titled major-label debut, and it turned out to be a dense, woozy, beautiful blend of blues-dirge and echoing atmospherics.

"Motion to Rejoin" is cut from the same cloth: slow-motion psych-blues with tinges of gospel and little electronic touches here and there.

The new record sort of swaps strengths and weaknesses with the old. Where their debut had a bit more propulsion and percussion – but also a lot of same-sounding songs largely in one key – "Motion" meanders when it probably should be moving forward; the addition of some new instruments and a few new chords, however, keeps everything interesting.

But interesting doesn’t mean lively. This is not a record for throwing on at a party. It’s for sinking deep into the couch as the songs wash into one another, tromping forward like some sort of narcotic swamp monster with a jones for the blues.

So despite sounding a little too much like its predecessor – including a lot of cryptic, New-Agey mysticism (Hologram buffaloes? Really? Doesn’t matter, the lyrics mainly add to the atmosphere) – "Motion to Rejoin" showcases a band that is growing bit by bit, even if it could probably use a little more oomph in the rhythm section.

Listen to samples from "Motion to Rejoin" at Amazon.com.

Sussex Countian

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